Use of Fenton reagent combined with humic acids for the removal of PFOA from contaminated water

Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are receiving significant attention due to its global distribution, high persistence, and bioaccumulation properties. Among them, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is one of the most commonly found in the environment. The strong bond C–F in PFOA is extremely difficult to degrade, therefore advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) at room temperature and pressure are not able to oxidize them, as was noticed here using Fenton like reagent (FR) or persulfate (PS) at 25°C. On the contrary, by using persulfate activated by heat (100mM and T=70°C) a complete defluorination of PFOA 0.1mM was noticed after 18h, with a sequential degradation mechanism of losing one CF2 unit from PFOA and its intermediates (perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPA) and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA)).Since this thermal treatment is not usually desirable from an economical point of view, alternative process has been tested. For this scope, a hybrid process is proposed in this work, by adding humic acid, HA, (600mgL−1) and FR, (165mM in H2O2 and 3mM in Fe3+) to the 0.1mM PFOA solution. It was found that the HA was oxidized by FR. PFOA was entrapped quantitatively and irreversibly during HA oxidation, resulting PFOA non-available to the aqueous phase. Oxidized HA with PFOA entrapped precipitates. Both, the leftover Fe(III) acting as a coagulant and neutral pH enhance the separation of this solid phase. The precipitation noticed by adding HA to the PFOA solution in absence of FR was negligible.